Above is the corn ear worm. It has nothing to do with today's post, save for the idea of something that gets stuck in your head and keeps repeating like a broken record.
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For the past few days, an old tune has gotten stuck in my head. No, it is not from a TV advertisement. Instead, it is from a tune regularly modified and played on a TV show from my youth. You may have heard it yourself: Pfft, you were gone. The Hee Haw show ran from 1969 to 1992, and it got good ratings - even in cities such as New York and Los Angeles. And "Pfft," became an earworm that often comes and goes in my head due to its pleasant silliness. But "Pfft" is not the only earworm I've had to deal with. For a long while, the jingle for the Radio City Christmas Show was stuck in my head, and I hated it. Other tunes have gotten stuck there, and I didn't mind them so much, as they provided a sort of rhythm that kept my mind moving.
What is it about earworms that make them so infectious? I feel, like others, that they trigger other memories. In my case, "Pfft" triggers happy feelings from childhood without directly triggering the memories that caused those feelings. Television was an escape from an unhappy childhood, and "Pfft" was indicative of the things that made me smile way back when.
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Given the nature of earworms, a thought came to mind. What would happen if a therapist could both find and use earworms to evoke feelings in a person undergoing therapy? Could this be a helpful tool in treatment? I'd love to be able to talk about this with the therapist who treated me years ago, as it would be an interesting discussion for sure....
